Nicholas Heebner, PhD, ATC
Performance and Job Task Demands of Special Tactics Support Airmen
Air Force Research Laboratory
This project will develop an occupational task analyses, physical assessment, and intervention selection framework to enable AFSOC and USAF commands to quantify the physical capacities required for specific occupational specialties that would be needed to inform physical readiness standards and develop military occupational specialties-specific physical readiness training program tailored for these warfighters.
Period of Performance: 09/2023 to 12/2026
Award: $3,400,000

Kyle Kosik, PhD, ATC
Revealing the progression of pain pathways and identifying chronification of pain predictors after an isolated lateral ankle sprain: Project RECOIL
Army Medical Research and Development Command
This study aims to prospectively identify the prevalence of chronic ankle pain after a lateral ankle sprain and examine its relationship with healthcare utilization patterns, subsequent musculoskeletal injury, and the development of new co-comorbidities. Secondly, the study will identify the susceptibility and resiliency factors underlying the transition from acute to chronic pain by prospectively assessing pain-generating pathways, clinician-based outcomes, and patient-reported outcomes after a lateral ankle sprain.
Award: $1,066,469

Brian Noehren, PT, PhD, FACSM
Leveraging Wearables to Transform Patient Recovery after Tibial Fracture Surgery
National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases
The overarching goal of this work is to generate the knowledgebase and tools that will enable us to reimagine and elevate the standard of care for individuals after tibial shaft fracture surgery, by monitoring and managing tibial bone forces in daily life.
Award: $2,675,844

Brian Noehren, PT, PhD, FACSM
Mechanistic Assessment of Blood Flow Restricted Training for an ACL Injury
National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases
This project will mechanistically test the ability of blood flow restricted training to improve the underlying morphologic and cellular maladaptation within muscle, and improve knee mechanics and strength following an ACL reconstruction compared to usual care.
Period of Performance: 07/2017 to 06/2024
Total Value: $2,786,621

Brian Noehren, PT, PhD, FACSM
Accelerating recovery following a lower extremity fracture through speed HIIT
U.S. Department of Defense
This objective of this three-year study is to test a speed walking intervention originally used to treat patients with a neurological condition combined with high intensity interval training.
Period of Performance: 08/2021 to 07/2024
Total Value: $1,430,476                                                                                                                                   

Brian Noehren, PT, PhD, FACSM, and Christopher Fry, PhD
Sex-based muscular adaptations, capillary dysfunction and functional decline impact knee-related psychosocial outcomes after acute knee injury (SMACK)
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
This study will define the muscle molecular and cellular sex-based differences underlying poor functional recovery, the recovery of muscle function and gait mechanics, as well as determine if biological and functional differences between males and females predict the worse psychosocial response observed in females after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
Period of Performance: 08/2021 to 05/2026
Total Value: $3,211,654                                                                                                                                

Brian Noehren, PhD, PT, FACSM and Caitlin Conley, PhD (College of Medicine)
Altering Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis After Patellar Dislocation
Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
The purpose of this innovative randomized clinical trial is to determine if knee aspiration and saline injection or blood flow restriction training (BFRT), either individua3048115290lly or combined, will improve outcomes after patellar dislocation.
Period of Performance: 07/2020 to 06/2024
Total Value: $2,889,181

Matt Hoch, PhD, ATC
Musculoskeletal Health Considerations to Improve Resiliency and Lethality in Female Marines
US Office of Naval Research
This project integrates field deployable technology to assess physical performance characteristics which will be analyzed through machine learning techniques to provide new insights into potential risk factors for injury. The hypothesis is that male and female Marines exhibit different injury patterns, healthcare utilization patterns, contributing factors to musculoskeletal injury, and threats to resiliency following injury      
Period of Performance: 08/2021 to 08/2024
Total Value: $4,016,764

Matt Hoch, PhD, ATC
Optimizing Clinical Outcomes for Patients with Chronic Ankle Instability Using Foot Intensive Rehabilitation (FIRE)
Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to demonstrate that a novel Foot Intensive Rehabilitation (FIRE) protocol will create more effective clinical outcomes compared to standard of care rehabilitation
for patients with chronic ankle instability.
Period of Performance: 09/2020 to 09/2024
Total Value: $2.5M

Matt Hoch, PhD, ATC
Visual-Motor Coordination Assessments for Patients with Chronic Ankle Instability
Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
This study will provide patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI) with visual-motor coordination (VMC) assessments that can be used as decision support for returning to duty. The VMC assessments will highlight a full spectrum of impairments associated with injuries related to CAI.
Period of Performance: 09/2022 to 08/2026
Total Value: $1,494,315

Johanna Hoch, PhD, ATC
The Influence of Resilience and Grit on Post-Operative Outcomes after ACL Reconstruction
Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association
This longitudinal cohort study examines psychological factors associated with optimal physical activity, patient-reported, and clinician-based outcomes in patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
Period of Performance: 04/2021 to 04/2024
Total Value: $4,991

Phillip Gribble, PhD, ATC, FNATA
Addressing Neuromuscular Deficits for Improved Outcomes in Ankle Sprain Rehabilitation
U.S. Department of Defense, Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
This project compares a novel sensorimotor rehabilitation protocol for lateral ankle sprain against a standard of care protocol to determine if it is more successful at producing successful one-year outcomes and lower rates of re-injury and improved health.
Period of Performance: 03/2018 to 03/2024
Total Value: $2,494,695

Phillip Gribble, PhD, ATC, FNATA
Safety, Health, and Injury Mitigation in Firefighter Training (SHIFT)
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The purposes of this study are to examine specific mechanisms of musculoskeletal injury sustained by firefighters during occupational and physical training activities and explore the role that health care practitioners have on improving care for these injuries.
Period of Performance: 09/2022 to 09/2025
Total Value: $1,117,760

Nicholas Heebner, PhD, ATC
Marines SpeCial Operations PrEparedness (M-SCOPE)
Office of Naval Research
The overall objective of this project is to improve the application, feasible implementation, and relevancy of the newly developed MSCOPE system to maximize the benefit of health and human performance data for all end-users.
U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research
Period of Performance: 08/2022 to 01/2025
Total Value: $2,409,378

Kyle Kosik, PhD, ATC
Physical Rehabilitation Through Telehealth for an Ankle Sprain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
NATA Research & Education Foundation
The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to illustrate the value of immediate follow-up via telehealth by an athletic trainer for initial care for an ankle sprain.
Period of Performance: 06/2020 to 06/2024
Total Value: $55,921

Emily Gabriel, PhD, ATC
Predictors of Participation in a Home-Based Injury Prevention Program in Those with a History of Ankle Sprain
Southeast Athletic Trainers Association
This study will determine factors associated with observance of a home-based injury prevention program, focusing on ankle sprains. Also, this study will examine the attitudes towards participation in injury prevention, health-related quality of life, range of motion, strength, postural control, and function.
Period of Performance: 09/2022 to 04/2024
Total Value: $808

Kirby Mayer, DPT, PhD
Remotely Monitored, Mobile Health Supported High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to Improve Functional Recovery of Survivors of Critical Illness (REMM-HIIT-COVID19)
Duke Clinical Research Institute
This project will determine the impact of a HIIT rehabilitation program on function, quality of life, and muscular outcomes in patients that survive COVID-19.
Period of Performance: 09/2021 to 08/2026
Total Value: $47,396